Darklight

by snoninja7

Chapter Six: The Makings of a Plan

“Thank-you-thank-you-thank-you-thank-you-thank-you-thank-you-thank-you-thank-you-Twilight-thank-you-thank-you... ”

When Darklight arrived back at the cave, Derpy was still thanking and hugging Twilight in the anteroom. He was forcibly pulled into a group hug when he was close enough and the outpouring of gratitude continued.

"I think that's enough thanks to compensate for anything done in the foreseeable future," Darklight said as he gently extricated himself. "By the way, I heard your name is Derpy, isn't it?"

"Yeah, that's me, I'm Derpy Hooves, but you can call me 'Derpy' or 'Ditzy' or 'Muffin Goddess', or... anything you want (as long as you ask me first!)".

"Well, I'm glad to meet you, Derpy. I'm afraid that 'Darklight' is the only name anyone ever calls me."

Derpy became even more excited. "Oh, you're Mr. Darklight! This is so cool! You're the pony I came out here to meet! I brought a letter for you!"

Darklight thought for a moment, and made a critical decision. "Why don't you hang on to that letter for a bit. You must be really tired after that long flight, and you are welcome to stay as long as you like."

"Don't worry about it, it's all part of the job. I may not be fast like some pegasi that I know, but it's hard to beat me for distance!"

Twilight was still trying to come to terms with the impossibility of the present situation. "Derpy, how on earth were you able to travel all the way to the central highlands of the Mist Continent and find the one pony that you were supposed to find without getting lost along the way?"

"Oh, well, I just used this!" she pulled the glowing green gem out of her saddlebag. "It glows brighter when I point the long end in the right direction. As long as I kept flying in the direction it told me to go, I never had to worry about getting lost."

"It's called a 'tracer gem'," interjected Darklight. "This is one of Father's inventions. The green gems are designed to glow when they are pointed in the direction of the yellow gem that it is paired with." He levitated a large yellow gemstone off of a shelf and brought it close to the one in Derpy's hoof. The yellow gem didn't change, but the green one glowed more brightly than ever. He demonstrated how they worked: "See, you tap them twice together like this to pair them, or in this case, to turn them off again."

Twilight was growing more exasperated. She wasn't going to let a show-and-tell about magic gems get in the way of her interrogation. "But how did you get it in the first place?"

Derpy was matter of fact about her response, and hadn't noticed Twilight's change in mood. "Well, about two weeks ago, I came into the post office in Ponyville to begin my morning deliveries when I found a note with the letter and the glowing gem thingy in my mail bag. It told me where I needed to go and how to use the gem to help me get there. I was really excited that my boss finally trusted me enough to send me on such an important delivery to a faraway place, so I finished my other deliveries for the day, went home and packed my camping bag with a few dozen of my favorite muffins and some other things, and started right away."

"You didn't tell anyone that you were going?!"

"I..I though everyone at work already knew. Plus I had the transporter thingy that The Doctor gave me." Derpy brought out the metallic box to show them. "Whenever I get lost or into trouble, I just press this big red button and it magics me back to The Doctor's living room. I can also use it to talk to him on the way. I also use it to tell him that I'm alright, though it's been acting all funny since yesterday."

"Derpy! The highlands are thousands of miles and a whole ocean away from home! It's bordered by no less than five hostile empires that would have captured or even killed you if they found you trespassing! For that matter, the Barbaroi would have done the same! Did you think of any of this?!"

“I thought I'd be okay. I had my pocket boat when I got tired on the ocean, and I can use my transporter if I found someone scary. I didn't think it would be a big deal..”

“It WAS a big deal. You could have been in big trouble! Why didn't you ask anyone before you left? How could you be so thoughtless about something like this?!”

Derpy was starting to cry now. “But I'm not smart like you, Twilight. I was just trying to do my job. I just wanted to show everybody that I could do it, that I wasn't just a big screw-up that got lost all the time.”

Twilight had gone too far again, and was being hypocritical. Derpy's camping bag was well stocked with all of the provisions and equipment she needed for the trip. How prepared had Twilight been when she made her journey? How many of her friends had she told before she left? Being away from home, her friends, and her comfortable, orderly life was taking it’s toll on her. She was lashing out at the ponies that were trying to help her, the ponies she needed if she was ever going to get back to Ponyville. It was time to get past her feelings of distrust for Darklight and be a little more open about how she got there, and be a little nicer.

"I'm sorry, Derpy. You were much better prepared than I was when I came here. I didn't ask a lot of questions when I found that spellbook in the library. I didn’t listen to Spike when he told me to check before I tried the spell that brought me here. Now I just want to go home.”

Twilight told Darklight and Derpy about her journey in greater detail. As she did so, Darklight seemed to grow more serious than usual. “May I see that spellbook?”

Twilight took the book out of her saddlebag and opened it to the page with the teleportation spell. Darklight quickly made his assessment. “This is Father’s hoof-writing and style, I’m almost certain of that. What I don't understand is why the spell brought you so far from your target destination. I've used it many times myself and it is a very reliable spell."

“Then why wasn’t I able to reverse the spell?” Twilight asked.

“I think the golem is causing some sort of localized interference, I haven't been able to cast a teleportation spell either since I came here. It may also be the reason that your transporter device hasn't been working, Derpy."

“I’ll be okay if I can't use it, I can always fly back home," Derpy added, a little too optimistically, “Though it’ll take me... longer... since I can’t use the tracer gem. But I don’t want to leave you here, Twilight, and I can’t carry you all the way back.”

Twilight thought for a few moments. “Well, I guess we have no other option than to do something about the golem. How else are the two of us going to get home.”

“You are under no obligation to fight the golem,” Darklight said, sternly, “And nobody has asked you to do so.”

“Then how else are we going to get home?”

Darklight was very unsatisfied with Twilight’s answers. He moved very close to her, looked straight into her eyes, and spoke with an air of determination that surprised her. “I will tell you how you will get home. I will fly you outside of the golem's interference field. You can both return either by reversing your teleportation spell or by using Derpy’s transporter device. You will be home in a day. I can take you right now if you want.”

He was testing her. Twilight's own selfishness had caused her to act out of character. It was time to be who she really was. “I’m going to stay and fight the Golem.”

“Why?” he asked. “I can assure you that none of those ‘five hostile empires’ care anything about what happens to the ‘Ghost Ponies’ of the central highlands. At best, they are thought of as subsistence farmers with no resources or skilled labor to make them worth bothering with. At worst, they are seen as the very definition of evil: bloodthirsty, barbaric, merciless cannibals. Nopony in your home country will hear about what you do here for them anyway, nor will they care. Why risk your life for them?”

“Ponies are in danger,” she said with conviction, “I don’t need another reason.”

“And I want to help too!” Derpy chimed in.

Darklight was smiling. The shadows made it difficult to see his facial expressions, but Twilight was starting to find ways to look beyond the shadows. He moved back to where he was standing before. “Thank you. Both of you.”

He thought again about last night’s visit. “When Raven’s Wind was about to leave, after he threw her knife at you, Twilight, she said something that I thought was a bit strange. She said ‘This is the mare that you need, the one who will help you. When your second guest arrives, you can prepare for the battles ahead’.” He sighed, “Unfortunately, I don’t think we can defeat it with only the three of us.”

“Why not?” asked Twilight. “It seems simple enough to me. The only reason that the magical barrier is there is to protect the eyes, so that must be it’s weak point. All we have to do is have one of us break through the barrier with a horn blast and the other destroy the eyes in the same way.”

“It isn't that simple.” replied Darklight, “And I have the scars to prove it. One time I was just able to bring down the barrier with the most powerful horn blast I could shoot at it, then I had just enough time to fire a medium level blast at one of it’s eyes before the barrier was restored.”

“And what happened?”

“It... repaired itself, the other eye used some type of regeneration spell. The barrier takes over a minute to be restored, but the eyes can repair the damage to themselves in seconds.”

Twilight tried to think of an alternate plan. “Why don’t we try to attack it during one of it’s regeneration periods, when it merges with the ground to absorb mana.”

“I haven’t been able to get close enough. I’ve tried several times: flying at full speed, creeping on the ground, galloping on the ground, it always activates before I can get close enough to do anything. It can sense ponies with magical abilities from a long way off, and non-magic ponies from almost as far.”

“Can you think of any other way that we can do it?”

“If we could find another way to bring down the barrier, the two of us could each focus our attacks on one of the eyes at the same time. If the magic attacks are strong enough, we should be able to bring down the Golem. Unfortunately, we don’t have another way to disrupt the barrier. The Barbaroi don’t have the magic abilities to do so, and they are under oath not to interfere even if they could.”

A grey hoof rose shyly into the air.

“Do you have an idea, Derpy?” Twilight asked.

She was a little reluctant to speak. “Promise not to tell anypony?”

“I promise.”

“Pinkie-promise?”

Twilight laughed good naturedly “Sure, Pinkie-promise.”

“Well, remember the last Grand Galloping Gala? I'm not sure if you knew, since you were invited to it all all, but there was a magic barrier set up to protect the guests at the party that was weak enough that you couldn't see it. I couldn't get any tickets to go to it, but I really wanted to go and I had a really pretty dress and... well, The Doctor modified one of his screwdriver thingies so that I could use it to get through the barrier and sneak in. He said that if you hit the barrier with it hard enough, it would totally mess it up completely, but if you were really careful about how hard you hit it, you could open a hole big enough to step through. So I... used it to go to the Gala, but when I got there, I was so scared that I would get into trouble that I left."

The object that Derpy showed them looked nothing like a screwdriver, but more like a metal flower with a glowing green light. Darklight said, "That may be just what we need. Can you show me how it works?"

Darklight cast a shield-type blocking spell, enclosing himself in a low level protective barrier. He probably meant for her to use the screwdriver to poke holes in the barrier, but she misinterpreted his intentions and disappeared through the door to the observation tunnel. When she reappeared, she was in full gallop, holding the screwdriver in her mouth, and aiming straight for Darklight. The green light of the screwdriver contacted the barrier and popped it like a balloon; then she slammed into him with such force that the two of them tumbled into the wall.

Derpy recovered first and started apologizing, but Darklight wasn't angry in the slightest. "Don't worry about it, I can already tell you're going to be a valuable part of the team."

Twilight suddenly got very worried. Her own experiences with Derpy, the time she dropped anvils on Twilight's head, the time she practically destroyed the town hall while 'helping' Rainbow Dash decorate for Applejack's award ceremony, all of them made it absolutely clear that she could not be trusted with any part of a coordinated attack on a giant stone golem. She would mess something up, and the rest of them would wind up dead.

"I don't think this is a good idea." Twilight confessed.

Derpy's elation slowly turned to sadness. "But how else are we going to do it?"

"You should let Darklight or I hold on to the screwdriver. This is going to be a very difficult and dangerous operation, and I don't think you are ready to help out."

"But it only works if I'm the one holding it! The Doctor set it up so that it only recognizes me!"

"Derpy, I don't... "

"I can do this, Twilight! I know I'm clumsy, and that my eyes are all screwy, and I get lost a lot, but ever since I first met you I've looked up to you. When danger came, when everyone else was scared, you were always so brave and knew what to do. I wanted to be like that too, not just sitting on the side and watching, but doing something to help protect my friends. I will do exactly what you tell me to do, Twilight, and I promise I won't let you down!"

Derpy's eyes were both completely focused on Twilight now. There was a seriousness and passion that moved and astonished her.

"I can help her," Darklight offered. "I've been fighting the golem for awhile now, so I can teach her what I know."

Twilight sat down and was silent for a few moments as she thought it over. Then she let out a sigh, "Alright Derpy, you can help us fight the golem."

Derpy hugged Twilight again and broke into another round of ‘Thank you's. Twilight interrupted her. "I think you should put away that 'screwdriver' before you do any damage with it, though."

"Don't worry, Twilight," she responded, twirling the screwdriver in her hoof, "Everything the Doctor makes is perfectly harmless, it can't hurt any... "

A beam of light from the screwdriver shot past Darklight's head, leaving a black mark on the wall and a puff of smoke. A few locks of his mane fell to the floor.

"I'm... gonna to put it away now." Derpy said, sheepishly.

Darklight looked admiringly at the dark mark on the wall. "Well, all I can say about that is: that was very cool."

Derpy was happy again. "I just realized that I completely forgot my manners," Darklight added. "Father would be furious with me right now. Are you hungry? How about I can get you something to eat."

"How about muffins! Do you have muffins?"

"I'm afraid I don't... "

"Oh that's okay, I can make some myself."

"You don't have to do that, your one of my guests. Plus I don't have any muffin pans." Darklight noticed the look of shock in Derpy's face and changed the course of his reply, "Buuuuut, I can make some right now. I have some sheet metal in the back, it will only take a few minutes. I should have most of what you need in the kitchen if you want to get started. There are a couple of sweet berry bushes near the entrance that are in season now, the Barbaroi don't have refined sugar so they use sweet berries instead... "

Twilight was left alone as the two of them set to work. She noticed a few things during their conversations that puzzled her. Not once did Derpy show any signs of fear when she was around Darklight, nor did she appear affected by the feeling of foreboding that Twilight even now felt to a small degree. Darklight in turn had been especially accommodating to Derpy, not showing the least concern about her eccentricities, and had tried to help her feel better about herself. There was one thing that worried her. When Twilight handed the spellbook to Darklight, he had glanced at her with an odd look in his eyes. It lasted only a moment, but she got the impression that he knew more than he was telling her.

Her gaze fell on the locks of hair that Derpy had accidently shot off of Darklight's mane, and Twilight found that there was something else to wonder at. That's strange. Why are these hairs red?

Author's Note:

I used to watch Dr Who a lot when I was a little kid, but a character in one episode really freaked me out and I stopped watching. Now that I'm older, I'd like to get back into the series, but doing so seems like a really daunting task. Think about it, there are almost a thousand hours of Dr Who shows, made over the course of almost fifty years! Where do I even start?! I did a fair amount of research to try and keep things a little bit authentic, and my little sister is a big fan of the show and helped me out with some of the details.

So yeah, that's a sonic screwdriver, and yeah, I know its for opening locks. I just used some artistic license and figured "Well, disrupting force fields is kinda like opening locked doors."